Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Chicken Club Pizza - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

Chicken Club Pizza - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

This month, along with all the gluten free goodies, Aldi got a bunch of fancy frozen pizzas. Normally I stick to veggie pizzas, but this one caught my eye.
Considering that Mama Cozzi's is Aldi's own Italian food line, the packaging is quite nice. The background features a brick oven, which is a little on the cheesy side(ha!), but you have to remember that this is a store-brand item. For a, practically no frills, item like this to have as much attention to detail and design is rather impressive. This packaging wouldn't win any design awards, but it's very functional and appealing. Nutritional information is on the front of the packaging, the pizza in the photo looks delicious, and the text is well kerned and easy to read.

Just like all frozen pizzas, there was a thin layer of shrink plastic keeping the pizza together, and the instruction were very easy to follow. Due to it's square shape it fit rather awkwardly on my round pizza pans, but the instructions recommended cooking it right on the rack anyway.

The results?

Deliciously crisp pizza that was oozing with cheese.

The box art might not be impressive, but the pizza picks up the slack. It looks really similar to the picture on the box, which is a promise that a lot of name brand pizzas don't fulfill, and it smells like garlic-y Alfredo sauce. When compared side by side, the spinach on the actual pizza is more broken up like an herb than in full leaf form, which might bother spinach lovers, but I don't think that takes away from the overall look.

I took a bite, and I'm so glad I followed the baking instructions, because this was the crispiest crust I've ever had (from a frozen pizza). After the initial crunch, the cheese and garlic sauce is the first flavor I could taste, it was delicious, but really rich. I already said that this stuff smelled like Alfredo sauce, but it really does taste like it too. There is a little Italian Restaurant in Pennsauken, NJ where I get chicken Alfredo (called Montegrillo's) and the sauce on this pizza is just like the rich buttery sauce they serve. It was really delicious for the first few bites, but the cheese and garlic flavoring is so rich that it overpowers the chicken and vegetables. The only flavoring that is able to stand it's own are the little crispy bits of bacon.

If I made a crispy pizza crust and dumped chicken Alfredo and bacon on top, it would be this pizza. It was rich and decadent, especially for an Aldi brand, and far better than any other name brand frozen pizza I've tried. My only complaint was that this was a bit too rich for my tastes. I think this pizza would be better if it were cut up into appetizer-sized bread sticks instead of a meal on it's own, but those of you who love rich foods might disagree. It doesn't taste like any chicken club I've ever had, but it's really cheesy and delicious.

This was in Aldi's "Special Buy" section, so I'm not sure how long it'll stick around or how widely available it is, but if I see it again I will have to stock up my freezer. This would make a really fancy appetizer for my next party.